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There are a lot of differences between Taiwan and America. For example, Taiwanese use chopsticks and eat rice, but Americans use forks and eat salad all the time. The most cultural shock to me is the rest rooms. There is a huge gap like a cave under the door. I think it is very weird. When I am going to the rest room I can know whether a person is in there without knocking the door. And this also let me feel I don’t have a sense of security. The traffic light can talk; I think it is a great facility. Helping the people who cannot see clearly. All of the cultural differences are fresh to me.

What can we do in an English class? Taking notes? Having a test? Going out and order something to eat? The last choice sounds impossible, but that was just what we did last Friday. On that day, we learned how to use polite words to order food. Then, we went to Sonic to order some snacks by ourselves. I wanted to order an ice cream named “Small Master Blast Waffleberry Brownie”. I said to the machine several times, but the person on the other side just couldn’t understand me. I felt a little sad. Luckily, Charity appeared and saved me from embarrassment. I learned a lesson from that day – I will only order the food which has an easy name. I really should improve my speaking, or I can only eat “chocolate ice cream” in America.

I went to the host family on Sunday. They have eight children. Janie, Lisa and I played some games with their kids. We ate cookies and drank juice together. After that, we went to the others house and we had a party with them. We played with two puppies. Someone swam in the pool; the others played basketball. In the evening, they had BBQ for dinner. And they also roast beef. The food was very delicious there. We had a great time with the host family.

On Sunday afternoon, after church, we went to the host family. And I am with Jonathan, Timothy, Peter and Leo. The man who picked us is the husband of a TESOL student’s sister (the student had just had a competition with my roommate in ping-pong.) So we went to his house, and I gave him a Pokémon ball for a present. After that we went to Walmart, and bought some instant lunch. And then we went swimming. After that we had dinner time, and the dinner was made by ourself. We made sushi and cheeseburgers, and it’s very tasty and delicious! I can say that it is my best meal in VOICE. And we played One Thousand, and I won the game. I like my host family, they’re really kind.

I felt so honored being offered the role of Christiana. But after looking deeper at the script, the music and this wondrous woman’s life, I felt scared. Scared that the challenging songs, and scared that I could not portray this great of a woman well. Nevertheless, I have peace in the heart. I will pray for God to give me enough wisdom, energy and sensitivity to play this role. I also shall pray that I may not be tied up by want for playing her perfectly. As the Bible and the Bible class has reminded me, I should remember the importance and the meaning of rest. I should have trust and faith in not only myself, but my team and my God. Though it may be even greater a challenge, I should and will try.

Venetia LiaoTeam 5

[Editor’s Note: The VOICE ‘16 musical is titled and based off of the book “Queen of the Dark Chamber”, the true story of the life of Christiana Tsai, a Chinese woman who came to know Jesus despite persecution.]

I am in Team Four. There are eight girls in my team, including the team leader, Grace. I do like my team. Although we have known each other for about two weeks, we treat one another as family. I think team times will be the thing that I miss the most. These days we have chatted much at team devotions and team prayer. We chat about everything like our family, friends and experience. And the most special and my favorite part of my team is that we hug each other after team prayer. I consider hugging is really important to our team. It improves our relationship. And I do appreciate Grace. She is not only a team leader to me, but also a good teacher, friend and sister.

It was a good memorial hall that we visited. It demonstrated the bombing incident in chronological order. It let us feel the whole thing just like it happened in front of our eyes. It was really scary, sad and even angry.
A part of the memorial I liked the most is the feedback. This memorial hall didn’t only write down the happening, the terrorist, the rescue and the people who died in the explosion, it also let visitors think deeper about how we will face this incident if it happens to us. There were some questions like “How do you want to treat the terrorist?” and “Do you want to forgive him?” These questions let me think deeper about forgiveness lesson. It will be really a difficult lesson for me if these kind of things happen to me. And I realized how big God’s love is. He didn’t only forgive us, He even let His son die for us. That was what I learned the most at this memorial hall.

Today we went to the OKC bombing memorial and museum. There it is really beautiful but has a really sad story in there. When I saw the picture of the people who died in the bombing, I was so sad. I feel pretty bad and angry with the guy who did this. Just kept thinking “Why.” But that is useless to be asking why. And what we should do is love and show to the world who Jesus is. When I saw the skyline of the Oklahoma City I just kept thinking what is our responsibility. Because we are the man who shall live in the world, and we know the story of it. So that is what we should do. Love the world and bring them hope in Jesus’ name. I know this kind of story will happen again. But if we stand together, everything will be okay.

When I attended camps in Taiwan before, we sometimes played dramas, so I had a few experience in acting. This time in VOICE, it’s my first time to play parts in a musical, this is really fresh for me. I will play an Angel’s part in the musical. Even though it’s just a small part in the show, I still enjoyed it a lot when i was practicing. Yesterday, me and Jamie practiced singing a song called “The Search”. The melody was lovely, but I also liked the lyrics a lot. We haven’t finished learning the song, so we’ll keep on going today. I hope that I can learn more about musicals during this chance.

We celebrated Thanksgiving last night and it was my first experience of how people celebrate Thanksgiving in America. First, we made our own turkey hat and wore it during the dinner. While we were eating, we watched a video about Snoopy celebrating Thanksgiving with friends and family. For Thanksgiving dinner, we had mashed potatoes, turkey, steamed pumpkin, beans and pumpkin pie. I am not such a fan of pumpkin, though. After the meal, Rebecca shared a story of a man who was a refugee from Iran. The story was touching and it made me think if I had been thankful for the Savior. Then we had some activities related to Thanksgiving. We played two games; one was about biting apples from a box of water, and the other one was jumping in a bag. I didn’t join the game because my foot was injured, but it was hilarious to watch others play. I wish we celebrated Thanksgiving like last night in Taiwan.